Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

U.S. Senate’s confirmation of proposed BLM chief no fait accompli

The 36 year-old son of a former Barrick Gold executive, a protégé of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, is finding his nomination as the next U.S. Bureau of Land Management director is anything but a fait accompli as far as the Senate Energy and Natural Resources is concerned. Neil Kornze, the son of former Barrick U.S. Exploration Manager and a former Newmont Mining chief geologist, Larry D. Kornze, has spent 11 years working in Washington, D.C.; eight years as a staff member for Reid on public lands, forest and mining, and three years with the BLM, currently as the agency’s principal deputy director. The League of Conservation Voters is backing Kornze’s nomination. LCV Deputy Legislative Director Alex Taurel observed, “As a westerner, he knows first-hand the importance of careful stewardship of our public lands. He's the right choice for the job, and the Senate should act quickly on his nomination." Reid’s remarks prompted a retort by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, who suggested Kornze lacks the experience required for the position of BLM director. “Specifically because the Federal Land Policy and Management Act states that the BLM Director: ‘shall have a broad background and substantial experience in public land and natural resource management’, he said, noting that former BLM directors Bob Abbey and Jim Caswell each had more than 30 years of experience in land and natural resource management. “In contrast, as we’ve discussed,” Barrasso told Kornze, “you’ve spent less than 3 years at BLM and no time at any other land management agency. “And with all due respect to the Majority Leader who was here to introduce you, I think this is not the resume of the ‘perfect’ nominee and to me it doesn’t suggest that you will be the ‘best director we’ve ever had,” Barrasso emphasized...more

Oh yes it is. With Reid and the enviros backing this will happen. The language in FLPMA was put there by the BLM to try to make their Director a "professional" like the Chief of the Forest Service. It's never worked.